Method for making a piston packing-ring.



1:. R. GILL.

METHOD FOR. MAKING A PISTON PACKING RING.

APPLICATION "LED OCT- 29. I913- 1,186,980. 1 Patented June 13, 1916.

' 1 3 1 l/VVE/VTOR WITNESSES 7 4 Eon/11v 1?. 011.4

EDWIN It. GILL, 0F YONKEBS, NEW YORK; ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF TO LYMAN E.

WARREN, or New roan, N. Y.

METHOD FOR KING A. PISTON PACKING-RING.

1i ASSESQ.

Specification'of Letters Patent.

Patented June 13, 1916.

Application filed October 29, 1913. Serial No.79'7,993t

To all whom itmay concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN R. GILL, a

citizen of the United States,.and resident of Yonkers, Westchester county, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Method for Making a Piston Packing-Ring, of which the following is a specification.

interior of the cylinder as they gradually venting any leakage past the piston of the steam, air or other motive fluid which may be used.

The particular object. of my invention herein described is to provide a method of making a piston ring which shall be easy and inexpensive to follow and will result in a ring having the good qualities of piston rings heretofore known, including a very considerable expansion, as wear takes place, with a negligible leakage of motive fluid past the ring.

Many piston rings heretofore known, while very effectually preventing leakage, have been very diflicult and expensive to make. Other rings, while perhaps simple to make, have only imperfectly prevented leakage. A piston ring is, as will be seen, very easy to make if made according to the method disclosed herein and will, at the same time, constitute a substantially erfect bar to the passage of motive uid across its plane.

My invention will be better understood by referring to the drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a piece of steeltubing which is to be converted into the packing rings of my invention; Fig. 2 represents the tubing of Fig. 1 after it has been bored out and sawed- Fig. '3 represents one of the been divided; Fig. 4 represents the ring of Fig.3 after it has been divided and closed so as to. have a final finishing cut made; Fig. 5 is a detail showing the ends of the ring after' completion but fully opened so .that the character of said ends may be clearly understood and Fig. 6 represents an end view of the bored cylinder of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, a suitable length of steel tubing 1 constitutes the stock from which my improved rings are made. The wall thickness of this tubev should be somewhat greater than the final radial thickness of the completed ring at its thickest point. I first take this ring and bore it out eccentrically so that its wall thickness decreases continuously from a maximum at one end 2, of a diameter, to a minimum at the other end 3, of the same diameter. Parallel rings 4 of suitable width are then "sawed from the cylinder. Each ring 4 is then suitablyheld in a milling ma chine and two segments of equal length, of

width half that of the ring and having their sides parallel to the plane of the ring are removed from opposite sides of said ring thereby leaving spaces 5- 5. These segments are offset peripherally with reference to one another. so that one se ent begins where the other ends. A mil ing cutter is then used to mill away a portion of the underside of the ring at the remote ends of each space 5; these two portions are of equal length. This cut away portion extends to the median place of the ring and leaves an overhanging tongue 6, the radial thickness of which is about half that of the ring itself. The ring is then shifted so that a milling cut may be taken from the outside ofthe ring and parallel to the axis thereof, so as to remove a segment from each end of the ring and thereby leave underhungtongues 7*7. The peripheral lengthof each segment IS the same as the length of the tongues 66 and the depth of the portion removed is about half that of the entire ring. The ring is now united only by a narrow bit of metal at the junction 8 of tongues 77. By .use of a fine metal saw the ring may be sliced across at this point so that its ends are free of one another. The ring pressed together as. shown in Fig. 4 the tongues 6-6 overhanging and sliding upon tongues 77. If the lengths of the several removed is then segments have been properly 11 chosen, the entire ring will. close together as shown in Fig. 4, but inasmuch as compression has been required to effect this closure, the ring will tend to open. \Vhile held in this closed condition a finishing cut is applied to the periphery of the ring and it is turned to a true cylinder. so as to have a. diameter very slightly less than that. of the cylinder in which the piston is to travel. The ring is then inserted into the piston groove provided for it and the piston fitted 7 to the cylinder; the ring will thereupon expand so as to accurately engage said cylinder peripherally at all points.

It will be seen that, when the piston ring I ;is'in place on the piston, and in the cylinder,

.there is a perfect overlapping of. ring ends both as respects a radial direction and as respects the plane of the ring. This. overlapping continues for'a very considerable expansion of the ring so that'a' large amount of wear may take place, and the ringopen one member of each pair of cooperating tongues have the same Width as the other cylinder in parallel transverse planes, re-

moving parallel angularly offset segments from-opposite sides of said ring soas to leave offset spaces on opposite sides, remov ing portions from the inside of. the ring at the remote ends of said opposite spaces so as to provide overhung tongues, removing an outer segment from the ring midway between said overhung tongues so as to provide underhung tongues, then cutting the ring across the junction of the underhung tongues, and finally closing the ring ends together and finishing the exterior of the ring to a true circle.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDWIN R. GILL. Witnesses:

ELMER .G. WILLYOUNG, FRrrz ZIEGLER, Jr. 

